Sweet and sour

FREE Special report: Imported American candy and fizzy drinks with banned ingredients and additives are one sale in Greater Manchester - and children can get their hands on them

- By JAMES HOLT RAMIZANI MWAMBA

THE novelty of buying sweets and fizzy drinks from the United States has meant business has boomed in Greater Manchester in recent years.

Spurred on by their popularity on social media sites such as TikTok, shops dedicated to selling the overseas goods are popping up on high streets across the region and rest of the UK.

Shelves are lined with multicoloured confectionary and cans of carbonated drinks that customers, including children, can buy with ease - except some can be illegal or, as we found, often wrongly advertised and labelled.

The M.E.N. has found that a number of American sweets are legally available to buy quickly and easily in Greater Manchester, but that they are not labelled with the correct warnings under UK legislation.

Products with specific additives should be clearly labelled with an alert that states they 'may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children' Urgent warnings have been issued by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and councils in Greater Manchester and beyond over the possibility of them containing additives and ingredients which are banned under UK legislation, due to their links with hyperactivity, organ failure and even cancer, or not being correctly labelled with the hyperactivity warnings.

Schools across Greater Manchester have also been forced to issue the warnings along with information sheets informing parents and guardians of the issue.

Large quantities of the sweets and drinks are being imported from America by businesses in the UK, often bringing the products in due to social media trends before 'flooding' wholesalers and retail premises with the stock.